Stephen Dubner

Whereas one of the great strengths of the human mind is that we're not binary thinkers.

We are extremely variegated in time and dimensions.

I am astonished still.

I love talking to people.

I love hearing how there are just these little synapses happening in your muscle, just like mine, but they come to something totally different.

Do you also then discover in the course of a conversation, what is the Venn diagram between you and that person and the types of synapses that are firing?

Right.

That's smart.

I look for all the ways in which I'm inferior when I do that instead of have in common.

Maybe my method is bad.

Yours is good and yours is good.

Looking for things in common so that you can have an actual conversation makes perfect sense.

I don't know why.

I'll be honest with you.

I don't participate very much in the online world.

I use digital stuff all the time.

But if we think of the online world as kind of like a second conversation that's happening for many people, that's not a conversation I really get involved with.

I'll be honest with you.

And therefore...

I'm aware of it because I have people who are in that conversation, but I'm not really in it.